~ The Writing Journey of Thirteen Bereaved Mothers

Knitting hearts

During the last few weeks I completed my first knitting project. I knitted a heart-shaped bowl and felted it. It looks like this:

It is not perfect, but which of us has a perfect heart (or can make one)? I had a good deal of help to complete this project, and my teacher was patient and forgiving of my mistakes, even helping to close up some holes I left and stitches I dropped. (Thank you, Monica.)

I tried knitting once before—about 40 years ago—and I managed to create part of a sleeve for a sweater before abandoning the effort. I finally took all the stitches out and my children used the yarn for their own imaginative play. My hands can play piano and dulcimer a little, type at a pretty fast pace on a keyboard, hold a grandchild’s hand, but I did not think they would ever knit. My previous efforts at needlework have been somewhat utilitarian but never, shall we say, artful or even neat. So I am proud of this heart-shaped bowl.

After finishing the heart-shaped bowl, I may not knit anything more for the rest of my life, but I do now understand why knitting has been called the new yoga. The action of pulling and looping the yarn and hearing the wooden needles click softly, the rhythmic (sometimes) repetition of creating the stitches, the need for quiet concentration and focus: All of these are calming.

And I think we could probably all use a calm and peaceful heart today. And this one is also filled with hope and love. It’s for you, for all of us.

In one of the comments on this reflection, Carol asked for a link to Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Volardores,” an essay from The American Scholar that she offered as a prompt one cold November day when our writing group wrote at Roaring Gap. Here’s the link in case you missed it in the commentsabove the blog entry: http://theamericanscholar.org/joyas-volardores/#.Uv1wFXddVUk .

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About Kay Windsor

I am a mother of three, grandmother of seven and a retired teacher of high school English and journalism in North Carolina. I am a member of a writing group of 13 bereaved mothers. Our stories are included in Farther Along: The Writing Journey of Thirteen Bereaved Mothers and our blog continues at http://fartheralongbook.com.

9 thoughts on “Knitting hearts”

Kay, I too think of your gesture, hand over heart, and of our writings, yours in particular, about hearts based on The American Scholar piece–can you put a link to it here Kay? Our Internet is out. Hoping power won’t be next in this tricky, full-moon weather.

Carol, I thought of the pieces about heart prompted by the essay from American Scholar too as I wrote. Doyle said, “Every creature on earth has approximately two billion heartbeats to spend in a lifetime.” I remember “counting” the number of heartbeats my daughter had and realizing how far from two billion the total of her heartbeats were. (Among the pieces in Farther Along: The Writing Journey of Thirteen Bereaved Mothers that were written in response to the essay are “Hearts and Hummer” on p. 27 and on p. 29, Betsy’s “My heart stopped as soon as I was born,” Monica’s “Half My Heart” on p. 32 and Kathy’s “A mother’s heart,” on p. 123.) Here’s a link to Brian Doyle’s “Joyas Volardores”: http://theamericanscholar.org/joyas-volardores/#.Uv1wFXddVUk

I love this Kay. Can you post another picture with a pencil beside it or something that gives us a sense of scale? I love the image of closing holes in the heart–that so really resonates for me–and picking up dropped stitches. I looked up from my screen and out the window just now to see a male cardinal the very same color as your felted hat.
It is lovely. Maybe Monica will be patient enough to teach us all how to make knitted hearts–although using four double-pointed needles might be a vast challenge for some of us.
I used to knit sweaters and scarves and vests but quit and gave away all my supplies. Hmmm. And then Monica gave me a beautiful scarf she had knitted. Maybe it’s time to reconsider.

Carol,
I added a photo that may show that the heart-shaped bowl is about the size of my palm. It did not occur to me until I did that photo that the heart is probably about the size of our human hearts, the size of our fists. Our writing group is lucky to have fiber artists among us. I’m just going to appreciate that art even more after this one small attempt! (But having four needles full of stitches and a fifth one to knit with was a little daunting to a not-so-nimble fingered knitter!)

You did an amazing job on your felted heart, Kay. You didn’t mention how you had to spread your stitches out over four double pointed needles to knit the sides of your bowl at one point. I am so proud of your felted heart bowl and your patience during the instruction process over the past couple of weeks. What project is next?